The sign is so high up that it would be of little use to a person with visual impairments

The council has put up a new sign on Westhoughton’s library that is so far up that it is hard to read – in a bid to follow the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).

A second sign that directs people to the library has been placed directly under the existing sign, causing passers-by to think they are seeing double.

Local councillor David Wilkinson has slammed the decision as a waste of money. He said: “The new sign is so far up the wall with such small print that its begs the question as to how a person with a visual impairment would read this?”

“The signs are barmy and now the council is ruling that they need them because of the DDA, when really it looks like a case of they want their corporate brand image plastered everywhere they can get it.”

The sign is high up on the wall, the print is too small, it has been printed with a white background, and it displays other corporate information on there (making it less easy to read), which means it is highly unsuitable for a person with sight problems to be able to read it.

Just look at the sign that points to the library – below the old sign that did the same thing (but better):

Seeing double? You are now!

Councillor Julia Silvester, who represents Westhoughton South ward, said: “It is unclear why we need to have two signs here when the old, traditional sign did the job just fine.”

A council spokesperson told us: “These signs are part of a corporate roll out of signage for DDA purposes and have been paid for from central resources.”

But Cllr Wilkinson added: “It doesn’t matter which coffers the money came from – it still came from the taxpayer in the long-run and these signs are nothing but a waste of our money, which could be better spent elsewhere.”

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